Billy McLaughlin | |
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| Genres | Fingerstyle guitar, tapping, new age |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, producer, public speaker |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Proton Discs, Narada |
| Website | www |
Billy McLaughlin is an American new age acoustic guitarist, composer and producer.
McLaughlin, of Irish ancestry, graduated with honors from the University of Southern California. He is one of nine children.
In 1998, Mclaughlin began noticing symptoms of focal dystonia, a neurological condition which severely limits his ability to play guitar. [1] He began retraining himself to play left-handed, ultimately developing a tapping style holding the neck of the guitar toward his right shoulder. A documentary entitled Changing Keys was made about this phase of his career. [2]
He returned to performing publicly in 2006, both solo and with his band. During his December 2006 concerts with Simple Gifts, the sextet he formed in 2002 to play Christmas music, he performed the hammering style left-handed and more traditional strumming style right-handed, using separate sets of guitars tuned for the manner in which he was playing.
McLaughlin is a voluntary ambassador for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation. [2]
McLaughlin has toured around the United States since before 1988, and also performs in Japan and across Europe.
The National Association for Campus Activities has awarded McLaughlin with three National Campus Entertainer of the Year Awards (Jazz) and a Hall of Fame Achievement Award. [3] [ non-primary source needed ]
McLaughlin received the 2010 Public Leadership in Neurology Award from the American Academy of Neurology. [4]
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
Michael Manring is an American bass guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 and from 1984 to 1987. With its first line-up consisting of musicians Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and Rick Laird, the band received its initial acclaim for its complex, intense music consisting of a blend of Indian classical music, jazz, and psychedelic rock as well as its dynamic live performances between 1971 and 1973. Many members of the band have gone on to acclaimed careers of their own in the jazz and jazz fusion genres.
Ottmar Liebert is a German guitarist, songwriter and producer best known for his Spanish-influenced music. A five-time Grammy Award nominee, Liebert has received 38 Gold and Platinum certifications in the United States, as well as certifications in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. His debut album Nouveau Flamenco (1990) was certified Platinum in the United States.
Martin Taylor, MBE is a British jazz guitarist who has performed solo, in groups, guitar ensembles, and as an accompanist.
Oscar Lopez is a Chilean-Canadian guitarist, whose signature style blends Latin and jazz styles.
Donald James Ross is a Canadian fingerstyle guitarist. He was the first person to win the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship twice. His album Huron Street reached the top ten on the Billboard New-age chart.
Focal dystonia, also called focal task specific dystonia, is a neurological condition that affects a muscle or group of muscles in a specific part of the body during specific activities, causing involuntary muscular contractions and abnormal postures. There are many different types of focal dystonia, each affecting a different region of the body. For example, in focal hand dystonia, or writer's cramp, the fingers either curl into the palm or extend outward without control. In musicians, the condition is called musician's focal dystonia, or simply, musician's dystonia. In sports, it may be involved in what is commonly referred to as the yips. The condition appears to be associated with over-training, and individualized treatment strategies may involve medications, retraining techniques, and procedures.
Jesse Arnaud Cook is a Canadian guitarist. He is a Juno Award winner, Acoustic Guitar Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco Category, and a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year. He has recorded on the EMI, E1 Music and Narada labels and has sold over 1.5 million records worldwide.
Narada is a record label formed in 1983 as an independent new-age music label and distributed by MCA. From 1997–2013, the label was owned by Virgin Records on behalf of EMI. Since 2013, it is a fully owned subsidiary of Universal Music Group and distributed by Capitol Music Group's Blue Note Records. The label evolved through an expansion of formats to include world music, electronica, jazz, Celtic music, new flamenco, acoustic guitar, and piano releases.
Love Devotion Surrender is an album released in 1973 by guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, with the backing of their respective bands, Santana and The Mahavishnu Orchestra. The album was inspired by the teachings of Sri Chinmoy and intended as a tribute to John Coltrane. It contains two Coltrane compositions, two McLaughlin songs, and a traditional gospel song arranged by Santana and McLaughlin. It was certified Gold in 1973.
Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel are musicians who have performed, recorded and traveled together since 1985, and are responsible for 19 albums.
Preston Reed is an American fingerstyle guitarist. He is noted for a two-handed playing style and compositional approach that uses the guitar's body as a percussion instrument.
Andy McKee is an American fingerstyle guitar player who has released six studio albums, two extended plays, and one live album to date. A number of YouTube videos featuring McKee's highly-technical guitar performances have achieved viral fame, garnering hundreds of million of views collectively.
Eric Tingstad is an American record producer, musician, songwriter and composer. He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. Best known as a fingerstyle guitarist, Tingstad has performed, recorded, and produced alternative country, blues, americana, rock, smooth jazz, ambient, and New-age music. Tingstad frequently collaborates with woodwinds player Nancy Rumbel as Tingstad and Rumbel.
Jazz guitarists are guitarists who play jazz using an approach to chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied solo instrument.
Julian Lage is an American guitarist and composer.
Inner Worlds is an album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was the group's sixth album release, as well as their last for nearly ten years.
Elmer Ellsworth McMeen, III, is an acoustic steel-string fingerstyle guitarist. His specialty is fingerstyle arrangements of sung or strongly melodic pieces, ranging from the Irish genre, to hymns, gospel tunes and pop music. He has also composed instrumentals for guitar, and has published a book of Irish and Scottish instrumental music that he arranged for classical string trio. That book is called Celtic Treasures for String Trio. He plays and arranges guitar music almost exclusively in the CGDGAD tuning. Acoustic Guitar magazine called McMeen "the king of CGDGAD tuning".
Electric Guitarist is the fourth solo album by guitarist John McLaughlin, released in 1978 through Columbia Records originally on vinyl; a remastered CD was issued in 1990 as part of the Columbia Jazz Contemporary Masters series. Among McLaughlin’s former collaborators appearing on the album are drummers Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham, keyboardist Chick Corea, alto saxophonist David Sanborn, violinist Jerry Goodman, bassists Jack Bruce, Stanley Clarke and Fernando Saunders and fellow guitarist Carlos Santana.
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